06 Jun 2013

Lunch meeting: Dr PY Leung, Chief Executive of Hospital Authority

We had birthday boy, Rtn Jim. President Michael presented a bottle of red wine as birthday gift and we sang the birthday song together.

Our speaker today was Dr. PY Leung to talk about “The Natural Transformation”. Having completed his tertiary education in the New South Wales University of Australia in the 1984, Dr Leung Pak-yin subsequently obtained a Master of Science (Occupational Medicine) from the National University of Singapore. Dr Leung began his career in public health and administrative medicine in 1985. He was appointed Deputy Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene in 2000 and Deputy Director of Health in 2002 in the Department of Health of the Hong Kong SAR Government. He set up and became the first Controller of the Centre for Health Protection in 2004. Dr Leung joined the Hong Kong Hospital Authority as Director of Quality and Safety in 2007 to lead, plan and launch initiatives to enhance quality, patient safety and risk management. He is appointed Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority in 2010.

Dr Leung said his move from the Department of Health to the Hospital Authority was a big challenge. He is responsible for the management of 41 public hospitals and other healthcare institutions, 58,000 staff and an annual recurrent budget of over US $ 4.5 billion. The heads of the cluster hold meetings every week to solve problems. With the training and experience from working with the Executive Council, Dr Leung knows how to cope with long agendas and making decisions quickly.

One of the big challenges of the Hospital Authority is the shortage of doctors. The situation has stabilized, according to Dr Leung, and there is hope to have more doctors graduate in the coming years. Also, the HA hopes to have more doctors coming from other countries, not only to solve the problem of understaffing, but to receive new knowledge and experience, as well.

President Michael invited Dr. Leung to be one of our club’s Honorary Members.